BY: SOME GUY NAMED STEVE
Heartbreak. That’s the only word to describe how last night ended. After a 1-1 split to start the night we were relying on BYU +10.5 to have 3 out of 4 winning nights. Unfortunately, BYU lost by 11, yes 11. However, it wasn’t BYU losing by half a point that made it such a heartbreak.
BYU was trailing by 18 with 2:37 to go. The bet seemed dead, and then out of nowhere, BYU went on a 9-0 run and cut the deficit to 67-78 with only 49 seconds to go. Gonzaga missed their next shot, and BYU made a layup to make it a 9 point game with only 16 seconds left! Hoping BYU would let Gonzaga dribble it out, they did the exact opposite and fouled immediately. This is Gonzaga we are talking about, they don’t miss free throws. The lead was once again at 11. Luckily there were still 10 seconds left, and BYU was able to make a layup to cut the deficit to nine again.
With only six seconds left, I thought for sure this would be a dribble out scenario. NOPE! BYU FOULED DOWN NINE WITH SIX SECONDS TO GO. SIX SECONDS. I’m all for teams playing until the final whistle, but not when my money or sanity is on the line. I’m not even going to tell you what happened on those final free throws because you should already know.
Whatever. I’m over it (not really). Today we move on and have ourselves a nice bounce back night.
VCU (-1.5) at Dayton
The first game tonight features a battle of two Atlantic 10 teams. VCU (13-4, 9-8 ATS) travels to Dayton (11-5, 9-7 ATS) in hopes to repeat what they did to them back on January 23rd. VCU won the first meeting 66-43 as their defense (14th best in the country) was way too much for Dayton to handle. Coming into the game, Dayton is the 256th ranked scoring offense in the country and is only playing a 6-7 man rotation. VCU is just a bad match-up, and I’m going to trust their defense to cause the Dayton offense trouble once again.
NC State (-1.5) vs Syracuse
We have an ACC battle between NC State (8-7, 6-7-2 ATS) and Syracuse (10-6, 6-10 ATS) for our next game. One of my favorite teams to bet against on the road in Syracuse, and this season is no exception. Syracuse is 1-5, 1-5 ATS on the road this season, with their only win and cover coming against the bottom dwellers of the ACC, Boston College. In the five road losses, they have lost by 15.2 points per game and have allowed opponents to score 83 points a game against them. Tonight they travel to NC State who has the 59th best offensive team in the nation. NC State is looking to get revenge from a 73-76 loss Syracuse handed them a few weeks ago, in a game where NC State was leading for most of it. I’m going to take NC State’s very efficient offense to get the win over a Syracuse team that can’t seem to stop anyone away from the Carrier Dome.
St. John’s (+2) at Butler
In our final game of the night, we are looking at a Big East contest between St. John’s (13-7, 12-8 ATS) and Butler (6-10, 7-9 ATS). St. John’s has been on an absolute scorcher this past month and now find itself in the NCAA tournament picture. Winners of six straight (including a win over No. 3 Villanova) St. John’s is doing all that they can to make sure they will be dancing in March. Avoiding a loss to a bad Butler team would be crucial for St. John’s tournament chances. On paper, this game heavily favors St. John’s. They shoot better from the floor, free throw line, and three-point range. They average more rebounds, assists, blocks, and steals per game than Butler. In fact, the only stat that favors Butler is that they are slightly better defensively (67th ranked compared to St. John’s 100th). This line seems too good to be true, which is terrifying, but I’m going to trust the numbers, the hotter team, and the team playing for a tournament bid.
Record: 6-8 (-2.8u)
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